Letters to the editor for Friday, July 18, 2014

Communities across Yolo County watch as their house and irrigation wells go dry, no one knows how many. We hear of plans to build more dams and raise the height of existing ones with the hope that rain will come.

Time to think about Yolo County management practices and what effect they have on our water storage, in particular our underground aquifer. The Cache Creek Aquifer has the water storage equal to Lake Shasta but if rains come without a change in county policy Cache Creek cannot recharge the underground. The continuous gravel mining along the stream removes the gravel responsible for this recharge. Yolo County has sanctioned gravel mining by their support of the Yolo County Gravel Mining Ordinance. This ordinance conflicts with proper water management.

Sally Oliver, Woodland

Memories of the State Theatre

This is the letter I sent to Woodland City Council and staff.

I am writing in support of efforts to restore the State Theatre. I was born and raised in Woodland. Likely, within the next two years, I will return to the city to care for an aging parent and begin a second career as a high school English teacher.

I don't think I fell in love with the movies at the State Theatre but I certainly practiced my adoration there. Mrs. Marsden, the owner or manager of the State throughout my childhood, gave Woodland's ministers free passes to her theater. She was a smart businesswoman. To avoid trouble from the local clergy, she invited them to see for themselves the quality of the films she showed. As my parents were avid moviegoers, they used my dad's clergy pass regularly. They always sat in the loge, so my dad could smoke.

The first film I remember attending at the State Theatre was a 1962 re-release of "Pinocchio." It was a Saturday matinee and the theater and the snack bar were so crowded I didn't see much of the film. The first film I attended without a parent was "X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes." Ray Milland plays a doctor who uses experimental eye-drops that give him X-ray vision. So risqu? at the time and also providing some comic relief was the gag that Milland could see through women's clothing. I still remember those 'racy' close-ups of women at a party in 1960-era hair-dos dancing with bare shoulders to suggest nudity. I saw Hitchcock's "The Birds" at the State. When I was in eighth grade and on a date, I saw "2001: A Space Odyssey." By the time "Cabaret" played Woodland, the State had its State II with the third screen in place by 1977.

Though I know nothing about urban redevelopment or city planning or even film exhibition, I do know something about the film product. For 33 years I earned my living as a film professional in Los Angeles until the 2008 recession, the technology switch from film to digital cinema, and the crushing job losses in Los Angeles made it impossible for me to find employment. Those jobs are not coming back to Los Angeles. The industry is no longer located just in L.A. and New York City. It is a global industry with real growth happening in China and Asia. Likewise, with content and the delivery of that content expanding so broadly to include internet, streaming video, and mobile, I wonder whether the multiplex theater is an endangered venue. American adolescents will always seek out entertainment venues that get them out of the house and away from parental scrutiny but will their preferred venue be the multiplex or something more akin to the 21st century version of a penny arcade with coffee latte service?

Would it be more prudent for Woodlanders and their City Council to consider other designs to repurpose the State Theatre space? Perhaps, by keeping the larger auditorium space intact for d-cinema exhibition and live performances, the smaller spaces could be used for screening rooms (multiplex screens) and/or digital cafes with support technologies for game devices, internet and streaming video, and mobile.

I recognize that determining the best approach to repurpose the State Theatre space has been a long and arduous process. I wonder, however, if choosing Cinema West's redesign for the State Theatre is more expeditious at this point than thoughtful. Once the integrity of the original space is destroyed, it will be difficult and costly to restore.